Potosi's Silver Mines by Matt Black

Photo Credit: Matt Black

Matt Black's work has explored the connections between migration, poverty, agriculture, and the environment in his native rural California and in southern Mexico.

He has photographed over one hundred communities across 44 U.S. states for his project The Geography of Poverty. Other recent works include The Dry Land, about the impact of drought on Californias agricultural communities, and The Monster in the Mountains, about the disappearance of 43 students in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero. Both of these projects, accompanied by short films, were published by The New Yorker.

Potosis Silver Mines

Daily Life, first prize singles

1993

In the frigid morning air, 4,070m above sea level, three people meet in the street. The untold riches of the Potos's silver mines, discovered in the 16th century, caused an unparalleled population explosion. Today, remnants of this opulent colonial past look oddly out of place in the desolation of the Andean mountains.